


Drive safely

by cherylbarrel



Series: One Hundred Ways to Say "I love You" Prompt List [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Car Accidents, Established Relationship, F/F, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, I Love You, One Hundred Ways to Say I Love You, core four cheryl toni sweet pea fangs, first time saying I love you, part 2 of my hundred ways to say i love you series, southside serpents, supportive sweet pea and fangs, worried toni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 18:17:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15442983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherylbarrel/pseuds/cherylbarrel
Summary: From the prompt"Drive safely."orIt takes the love of her life being in a car accident for Toni to grow the courage to tell her.





	Drive safely

Sweet Pea places a hand down on top Toni’s rapidly bouncing leg from where he sits beside the shaking girl. His eyes hadn’t even been open, they still aren’t. He’s leaned back in the cheap hospital waiting room chair, the back of his head pressed against the wall behind him, and his gigantic legs stretched out on the floor in front of him. 

Toni is in a much different position. She’s in an identical chair, however, her body is scrunched forward, legs close to her body as she bounces them in anxiety. Her lip is bleeding from how much she’s been chewing on it the past hour, and her face is much paler than her normal colouring. 

As soon as Sweet Pea’s hand makes contact with her thigh, her own shaky, much smaller hand clings to it. Threading her fingers in-between his, and squeezing tight as if she’s terrified of what will happen if she lets go. 

Sweet Pea says nothing, does nothing, nothing but squeeze his friend’s hand back just as tight. There was nothing left for him to do, and he knows this. He’s here to support Toni, pushing down his own fears and anxiety that’s bubbling in his chest, in order to be a strong front for the other girl to lean on. 

Fangs comes shuffling in, taking a stand next to the pair, a plastic cup of water in his hand. “Here, Toni, you should drink something,” he speaks softly, leaning down to the distressed girl. 

Sweet Pea opens his eyes, looking between his two friends with a solemn expression. When it doesn’t look like Toni is making any attempts to accept the water, Sweet Pea just slowly shakes his head to Fangs. 

He sighs, and moves to take the seat on the other side of the shaking girl, bringing the cup up to his own lips instead. 

“She’s going to be okay,” Sweet Pea says, and the words solicit Toni to meet his eyes for the first time since they got there. 

“You can’t know that for sure,” is her response. 

Toni’s face is a complete mess of ruined makeup and tears as she stares up at Sweet Pea with an almost desperate plea in her eyes. As if she’s begging him to be able to tell her that he does know for sure, begging him to have all the answers she needs. But he doesn’t. Toni’s right, Sweet Pea can’t know for sure. He knows Cheryl Blossom is one badass chick, but he doesn’t know if that’s enough to save her life. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers instead, a tear of his own escaping down his cheek, as he watches his best friend break apart. 

“She’s strong as hell,” Fangs comments, and Toni turns around to face him. “We don’t know if she’s going to be okay, but if I had to bet on anyone making it through this, it’d be her every time.” 

Toni starts crying even harder at the words, moving forward and wrapping her arms around Fangs for a hug, soaking his plaid shirt with her tears in the process. He doesn’t mind though, he simply holds his friend close, trying not to let his heart break at the tragic sobs that wreck Toni’s body. 

Cheryl has been in surgery for an hour now, and with each minute that passes, Toni becomes more and more consumed by the impulsive, dark thoughts in her brain telling her the girl she loves is dead. 

Yes, the girl she loves. She hasn’t even gotten the chance to tell Cheryl that yet, and now she might never get to. 

Sweet Pea had told her that Cheryl already knows, even if she hasn’t heard the actual words yet. Toni finds ways to say I love you without actually having to say it. It’s silly, because she knows she should just come out and tell the truth, she knows Cheryl feels the same way. But something always stops her from choking the confession out, so she finds other ways to ensure her girlfriend knows just how much she loves her. 

Tonight, before absolute hell broke loose, Toni had done just that. 

_“My shifts over,” Toni speaks into the phone as soon as Cheryl’s voice came through the speaker with a cheerful greeting._

_She holds the phone to her ear with her shoulder, while she digs around her bag for the key to the trailer her and Sweet Pea share._

_“About time,” Cheryl teases._

_Toni finds the key and shoves it into the lock, jiggling it for good measure, before responding, “You were welcome to come hang out at the Wyrm, you know?”_

_“As much as I love your little greaser bar, TT, I think I’ve had one too many nights sat next to drunken men with all too curious eyes, for the week”_

_The serpent girl smirks as she enters her trailer and throws her bag down on the couch. “Just give me the names,” she says, “and I’ll destroy them all for looking at you.”_

_Cheryl snorts, “How chivalrous.”_

_“I’ll always be your knight in shining leather,” Toni walks into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from a bowl sitting on the counter. She hadn’t eaten since before her shift, and knew Sweet Pea wouldn’t mind some missing fruit._

_“You better,” Cheryl hums, and then Toni hears some sort of shuffling on the other side, “Can I come over now?” the redheaded girl asks._

_“You sure you don’t want to me to come to you?” Toni questions, “It’s kind of a mess around here,” she takes a glance around the dishevelled trailer with a small grimace._

_“I don’t mind,” Cheryl promises, “Besides, If I’m being honest, I’m sick of being at Thistlehouse right now, only took 17 years, but this stupid house is finally starting to give me the creeps.”_

_Toni can sense the deeper emotion hidden behind Cheryl’s causal wording. A frequent tactic implemented by the redhead. She still wasn’t the best at communicating her feelings, but she had improved tremendously since Toni met her._

_The serpent didn’t want to divulge into the reasoning for her girlfriend’s sudden apprehension for the house she’s previously defended to Toni on numerous occasions, over the phone. Instead, she made sure to take note of the information, and decided she could try to talk to her about it later, once they were together._

_In the meantime, she just chuckles and replies, “That’s because you practically live in a haunted house attraction, Cher.”_

_“Hey, it once held a certain charm, believe it or not.”_

_“I’m sure it did,” Toni rolls her eyes, knowing the other girl can’t see her._

_“So,” Cheryl clears her throat, “I can come over?”_

_“Of course,” Toni tells her. “Sweet Pea was still at the Wyrm when I left so we should have some time alone together.”_

_“Perfect,” Toni can hear her smile over the phone, “I have to admit that giant is actually quite entertaining, but he’s also much too loud.”_

_Toni laughs. “I’ll agree as long as you promise to never tell him I did.”_

_“Your secret is safe with me, TT,” the sound of a door opening and closing is then heard._

_“You leaving already?” Toni asks._

_Cheryl takes a second to respond, “I may have been ready and waiting for the past hour.”_

_Toni’s more endeared by the response than she’d ever admit out loud. She doesn’t know how she got so lucky with Cheryl Blossom. The girl is too good to be true sometimes._

_“Someone’s eager,” she grins._

_“Don’t tease,” Cheryl scolds, and Toni swears she can see the little pout on her girlfriend’s lips even though she’s miles away from her._

_“I’m sorry, baby,” she speaks, “Get over here, and I’ll make it up to you.”_

_Cheryl seems to like the sound of that. “Already in my car.”_

_“Good. I’ll see you soon,” Toni wants to say something else. The confession sitting on her tongue, begging her to make sure Cheryl knows. But she can’t. The first time she tells Cheryl she loves her isn’t going to be over the phone._

_“Cher?” Toni asks quietly before they hang up._

_“Yes, TT?”_

_“Drive safely,” she says in place of I love you._

_“Always.”_

Cheryl did drive safely. Turns out, some drunk asshole driving down the opposite lane from her, did not. 

Toni gets a call a mere 25 minutes after she gets off the phone with Cheryl. She’s expecting it to be her again, perhaps with a reason for her hold up considering it only takes her 15 minutes to get to Sunnyside Trailer park. 

She definitely gets her reason, but it wasn’t Cheryl on the other line. 

After Toni gets the call, she’s in a state of shock. 

She calls Sweet Pea, but honestly she can’t even remembering dialling his number. All she knows is one minute she’s being told her girlfriend’s in critical condition, the next minute she’s in the back of Sweet Pea’s truck, and now, she’s here in the Riverdale hospital waiting room. 

It hurts. Everything hurts. Her lungs feel like they’re on fire, every time she tries to breathe, knowing that Cheryl may have taken her last breaths tonight. 

She can’t stop thinking about Cheryl dying. Toni didn’t even know that was her biggest fear until tonight. If someone asked her what she was most afraid of a couple days ago, maybe she’d say something about following in her parents footsteps and ending up in jail, or maybe being stuck working a lousy bartending job in this small town for the rest of her life, or hell, she’s always been kind of uneasy around clowns. She thought she knew her biggest fears, but she’s living her worst nightmare right now, and nothing could ever come close to this amount of pain. 

“I’m sorry, I haven’t heard anything about your friends condition,” a sympathetic sounding nurse says to Sweet Pea who has found his way to the reception desk for what might be the fourth time that night. 

“Okay,” he nods, wringing his hands under the counter to hide his impending nervousness. 

Fangs shoots him a look from over Toni’s shoulder, and he shakes his head. No news. 

Sweet Pea looks around the empty waiting room save for him and his two friends, and wonder if they should be calling anyone else. 

He hadn’t even told Jughead where they were going when he and Fangs rushed out of the Wyrm after receiving Toni’s call. Cheryl’s other friends, Betty, Veronica, Josie, even Archie, they all had no idea anything had even happened to her. Sweet Pea didn’t know if calling a good percentage of Riverdale’s youth over here was the best idea right now though. It’s not like they knew anything yet anyway, and Toni doesn’t seem to be in the appropriate state of mind to handle more people. They’d all be fawning over her at a time like this, bless Veronica and Betty’s hearts, but they were extremely prone to prying, and Toni didn’t need that. Sweet Pea decided he’d call them the minute the they heard anything, and for now, the three serpents could just wait in silence. 

It took half an hour longer. 

With Toni growing progressively worse in that time, as she seemed to equate the passing minutes to the likeliness of Cheryl’s death. 

It was during a particularly rough breakdown in Sweet Pea’s arms this time, when a doctor, looking a little worse for wear himself, came through the swinging doors. 

“You three here for Cheryl Blossom?” he questions, easily spotting them out in the sparse room. 

They all but sprint towards him. Toni is immediately front and centre, despite the fact that she’s beyond a mess at this point. 

“Is she alive?” she frantically asks, her heartbeat jumping out of her chest. The blood is so loud in her ears, she’s afraid she won’t even hear the doctor’s response. 

“She’s stable,” he confirms. 

Toni feels air enter her lungs without the sting of fire for the first time since she got the call. 

“Will she be okay?” Fangs questions quietly, rubbing his hand along Toni’s back in comfort. 

“Ms. Blossom will recover. She lost a lot of blood, the drivers side door came in and crushed her left side, leaving a pretty bad wound. She also broke her arm on that side, and she broke multiple ribs as well. She suffered a small concussion, but it doesn’t appear too serious or to have any long lasting effects, all in all, Cheryl’s a very lucky girl right now.” he finishes, a small but tired smile on his face. 

Toni doesn’t know how to feel. She’s relieved that Cheryl’s going to be okay, but hearing everything she went through still breaks her heart. She didn’t deserve this. Cheryl’s been hurt over and over again her entire life, and she didn’t fucking deserve this. It wasn’t fair. 

“Can we see her?” Toni asks with a small crack in her voice, there are still a few tears rolling down her cheeks, but she’s managed to get her crying somewhat under control. 

The doctor shares a look between the hopeful and worried teenagers in front of him. “You can,” he tells her, “But just one at a time, okay? You don’t want to overwhelm her right now. She may be a little dazed from the medication as well as her concussion.” 

She’s given a room number, and that’s all it takes before she’s rushing off to Cheryl’s room. Sweet Pea and Fangs promise to wait outside, and Sweet Pea mentions he’s going to make a couple of calls. 

Toni only partly processes what they say, if she’s being honest. She’s way to focused on getting to Cheryl to concentrate on a single other thing. 

Once she’s standing in front of Cheryl’s door, she takes a deep breath before turning the handle. 

Oh god. If she thought her heart was broken before. 

Toni has to cover her mouth with her hand as she feels herself begin to sob again. She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but seeing Cheryl so broken and weak, lying in a hospital bed that her skinny frame sinks right into, was more than she was prepared for. 

“Cher…” she whispers brokenly. 

The redheaded girl has her eyes closed. Toni moves closer, coming to stand directly beside her, choosing her right side instead of her significantly more battered left. With a shaky sigh, Toni grasps her hand, holding it tight and letting her thumb run over the smooth skin. 

“I’ve got you,” she says, kissing Cheryl’s palm before gently bringing it back down to the bed. 

“I’m so sorry this happened, but I’ve got you now, and I’m not going to let something like this happen to you ever again,” she promises through her tears. 

She falls to her knees, pressing her forehead down on their conjoined hands as she cries. Toni’s sure she’s cried enough for the whole year in this one night. She’s beginning to get a headache, and her throat is awfully dry, but none of that matters to her. 

“T—Toni?” A weak voice pipes up, and Toni quickly lifts her head just as Cheryl’s eyes flutter open. 

“Hey, you,” she replies with a watery smile. 

Toni stands and puts her other hand on Cheryl’s cheek. “You really scared me.” 

“I’m sorry,” Cheryl dreamily sighs, blinking her eyes a few times. 

“How are you feeling?” Toni asks. 

“Really good,” Cheryl smiles, “Everything’s all tingly.” 

Toni can’t help but chuckle softly. “Yeah, they’ve got you on the good stuff all right.” 

Cheryl doesn’t reply for a moment, her smile turning to a frown once she takes a better look at Toni’s face. 

“Why are you so sad?” she wonders aloud, attempting to sit up only to have Toni quickly push her back down. 

“Take it easy, Cher,” Toni frets, holding the girl at her shoulders now so she wouldn’t get up. “Baby, you were in a car accident, you’re at the hospital right now,” she explains, as Cheryl’s clearly too out of it to hold much awareness of her surroundings. 

“Oh,” she pouts. “I was going to offer to beat up whoever made you so sad, but I guess that would mean I’d have to beat myself up.” 

“You’ll do no such thing,” Toni pointedly tells her, “You, my princess, are too high to even remember your own name,” 

Cheryl just pouts some more, and Toni leans down to kiss the girl’s temple. “Again,” Cheryl requests with innocent doe eyes once Toni pulls away. 

Toni laughs, but happily complies. Coming back down to kiss Cheryl’s forehead, both her cheeks, her nose, and finally her lips. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Toni breathes. “Thinking I lost you, was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do.” 

“I’m here,” Cheryl whispers. 

She then starts shuffling over a little, making more room on the side closest to Toni. 

“Cher, be careful!” Toni reaches out immediately, helping the girl gently move over and putting a stop to her fast paced movements. 

“Cuddle with me,” Cheryl states, more so than asks, looking up at Toni expectantly. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Toni says, her bottom lip between her teeth worriedly. 

“You won’t,” Cheryl tell her, “not unless you tell me you don’t want to cuddle with me.” 

Toni shakes her head at the girl’s antics. “Fine, but the minute you look like you’re in pain I’m getting up.” 

“Deal.” 

Toni slides into the bed incredibly slowly, dreadfully careful not to discomfort Cheryl in any way. 

“How’s this?” Toni asks once she’s laying down. 

Cheryl moves to rest her head on Toni’s chest, moving her body, and specifically her left side, as little as possible. 

“Better,” Cheryl breathes. 

Toni kisses the top of her head. 

They lay silently for a few minutes, the only sound is the consistent beep of a heart rate monitor, and the gentle rise and fall of both their chests. 

Toni breaks the silence with a smile, a thought popping into her head as she stares at the cast on Cheryl’s arm. “Sweet Pea’s going to write something dumb on your cast.” 

“No, I forbid him,” Cheryl nuzzles a little deeper into Toni. 

“Then Fangs will,” Toni suggests. 

“I forbid them both, and you’ll be next if you even think about it,” she threatens. 

“I would never, serpent’s honour,” Toni promises, and Cheryl agrees with a little hum, too out of it to remember that serpent’s honour isn’t a real thing. 

The room goes quiet again. Toni can tell Cheryl is getting sleepy in her arms, and she’s quite exhausted herself after the night she’d had. 

As tired as both girls are, and as high as Cheryl may be, Toni knows she can’t let another minute go by without telling Cheryl something she should have told her a long time ago. 

Because the only thing she could possibly ever fear more than losing Cheryl, was losing her before she told her she loves her. 

That ends now. 

“Hey, Cher, I have to tell you something.” 

Cheryl lightly grips one of Toni’s hands that had been resting near her stomach. She fidgets with a couple of the serpent girl’s fingers before quietly asking, “What is it?” 

“I love you,” she lets the words she’s been dying to say finally slip out her mouth. Toni doesn’t even know if Cheryl will remember this, but it doesn’t matter, because starting now, Toni’s going to make sure she tells Cheryl she loves her every single day, so she won’t ever forget. 

She’s not even expecting a response, figuring Cheryl may want to be in a clearer mindset before addressing Toni’s confession. She didn’t need a response now, she just needed Cheryl to know. 

That doesn’t mean she’s not a little excited when the redheaded girl does in fact repeat the words back to her. 

Cheryl threads her fingers through Toni’s before saying, with the most sincerity she’s had since Toni walked into this room, “I love you too.” 

Toni feels complete in that moment. 

Yes, her girl has been badly broken once again, and Toni’s heart still aches when she thinks about all the pain Cheryl is going to be in. But she’ll be there to take care of her, every single step of the way. Most importantly she’ll be there to love her. Something Cheryl hasn’t had a whole lot of in her relatively short life, but Toni’s determined to change that. 

The girl she loves, loves her back, and it’s an exhilarating feeling. 

In the end, Sweet Pea does write something on Cheryl’s cast. He makes some dumb joke in sharpie marker, _You should see the other guy._

Cheryl slaps him over the head with her good arm when she sees it. He only laughs before running off in the other direction, before she gets the chance to retaliate any further. 

Toni writes something too. It has Sweet Pea and Fangs making fake gagging noises after reading it, and has Cheryl beaming, with adoration practically oozing from her eyes when they skim over the words. 

She signs, in small, neat lettering, _I love you - TT._

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed, please feel free to leave a kudos or comment if you did, it really means a lot to me.


End file.
